Romney adviser says 'taxes not an issue' despite poll results

Mitt Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom was a guest Sunday on CNN's 'State of the Union' to talk about the election. During the talk he maintained Romney's refusal to release more than two years of his taxes wasn't an issue for the American public.

“Taxes are not an issue," Fehrnstrom claimed. "It is not what the American people are talking about.” He made his statement despite being interviewed on the station that, along with the Opinion Research Corporation (ORC), conducted a poll released August 9th which found 63 percent of Americans believe that Mitt Romney should release more than just two years of his tax returns.

Romney 2011 tax return by October 15

Also on Sunday, another Romney adviser, Ed Gillespie, appeared on 'Fox News Sunday' where he said that the remainder of Romney's 2011 returns would be ready for release by October 15. To date, Romney has released almost all of his 2010 returns and parts of his 2011 returns.

Romney's father, George Romney, also a Republican, established a precedent when he ran for the office of the presidency in 1968 by releasing 12 years of his tax returns. However, that has not always been followed and candidates have released lesser amounts. John McCain, who ran for the Republicans in 2008, for example, released only two years of his returns.

The Democrats maintain that given Romney released 23 years of returns to the McCain camp in 2008 when he was being vetted as a possible V.P. candidate, he should give the American public more than two. Further, when Romney's campaign team was vetting Paul Ryan, who is now the V.P. candidate on the ticket, they said they saw "several" years of Ryan's returns. They have declined to say specifically how many years 'several' means.

Romney said it won't matter how many years of returns he releases, he believes the Democrats will keep asking for more. In response the Democrats recently said that if Romney releases just five more years of his returns, matching in total the number of returns the President released when he ran in 2008, they will be satisfied and not ask for more. Romney has refused.

In the CNN poll that Fehrnstrom ignored, of the registered voters polled who consider themselves Independents, 67 percent feel Romney should release more tax returns.